LAHORE: Opposition leader and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif Tuesday accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) government for rampant corruption.
Referring to the country’s dismal ranking on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Shehbaz Sharif took to Twitter, saying that “according to Transparency International, [the] PTI government has broken all records of corruption in the last 20 years”.
In a major blow to the PTI accountability narrative, Transparency International, a global corruption watchdog, placed Pakistan at the 140th position out of 180 countries on its CPI for 2021.
The CPI is an index published annually by the global watchdog, which ranks countries “by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.”
The PTI that came to power with a slogan to eradicate corruption has seen the graft level surge throughout the country during its three-year rule.
In 2018, Pakistan ranked at 117 out of 180 on the CPI, but over the three years, it slipped every year to reach 140 in 2021. In 2020, Pakistan ranked at 126 on the index.
He further stated that during Nawaz Sharif’s government, “corruption (had) decreased despite the massive development,” which he claimed was the result of “transparency, good governance and legal reforms”.
He emphasised that under the current government corruption had hit “an all-time high” despite the fact that no worthwhile development has taken place.
